Google Page Rank Matters

While your Google Page Rank (PR) might not seem to affect your blog-related income, it does have an indirect effect. The PR of any website (including your favorite blog) is one of the factors determining how close to the top of the screen your site appears when someone uses Google to search for keywords. Sure, the relevance of your content matters a great deal, but so does your page rank. Page Rank also plays a role in determining the price of Adsense ads on your blog or other website.

What is Google PR?
PageRank is a link analysis algorithm used by the Google Internet search engine that assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents, such as the World Wide Web, with the purpose of "measuring" its relative importance within the set. The algorithm may be applied to any collection of entities with reciprocal quotations and references. The numerical weight that it assigns to any given element E is also called the PageRank of E and denoted by PR(E). Incidentally, "Page Rank" is an exclusive trademark of Google, and the calculation process is patented. The patent is held by Stanford University, but the licensing agreement grants full rights of ownership to Google.

How can I find my Google PR?
There are several websites offering to calculate your Google Page Rank for you. Some work and some don't. I recommend using Google Page Rank Checker. Although a third-party service, it's free, fast, and easy. No sign-up or other nonsense required. You can even grab a free button, if you like, to advertise your PR on your bog or other website.

How can I improve my Google PR?

1. If your blog is fewer than six months old, don't be surprised if you Google PR is zero. Be patient. Google wants to be sure that you have a sustainable and reliable site, not just a fly-by-night vehicle for ads.
2. Create internal and external links. Link your blog posts to each other. If you have multiple blogs, link them to each other. Exchange links with other blogs and websites. You link to them, they link to you. Links tell Google that your site is safe to visit.
3. Write good content, free of spelling errors, grammatical errors, and typos (yes, all that stuff you learning in high school English classes IS relevant!).
4. Update your blog frequently, as google likes fresh content.
5. Tell your friends about your blog. Use word-of-mouth advertising, and include a link in e-mails that you send.
6. Add your site and posts to social networking sites such as Facebook, and social bookmarking sites such as Digg. Add a button to your blog to facilitate this.
7. Readers, what other suggestions do you have?